Pioneered by Xiaomi in July 2014, the model of putting up limited stocks on an online platform for sale proved a huge success in building the brand for the Chinese smartphone major, prompting all and sundry to hop on. But the trend has since faded away as the novelty factor has worn off. Moreover, such sales have been overshadowed by the big billion sales days of the ecommerce majors.

Flash sales are now being used more as a strategic tool to build consumer demand, especially when supply is low. Moreover, it’s no longer restricted to handsets. A slew of companies including those in consumer goods and personal grooming segments are now using flash sales to introduce new products, as they feel the model is unique to their industries.

“Flash sales actually turned out to be a very effective way of organic marketing for new brands entering India especially through e-commerce route. However low barriers to entry in e-commerce segment led to multiple brands following similar strategy, slowly diluting the excitement attached to weekly flash sales,” said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

He added that the popularity of flash sales have sharply declined post the second half of 2015. Xiaomi used the model successfully to quickly gain a foothold in the highly competitive Indian smartphone market, but has since moved to open sale for selling phones. The No 1 Chinese smartphone maker now uses flash sales to sell its mobile phone accessories including power banks and earphones.

“A lot of other brands misunderstood this as our key strategy, and they thought that flash sales was the secret sauce of Xiaomi’s success... they tried started copying the flash sale model,” Manu Jain, head of India operations told ET.

Another key reason hurting flash sales has been the rise in standalone sales from e-commerce channels like the Flipkart big billion day, Snapdeal electronics day, Amazon Big sales and other daily or weekly promotions, say experts.

“The frequency of which from leading ecommerce channels grew significantly in 2015, thereby taking over the excitement attached to brand’s weekly flash sales on the same e-commerce platforms,” said Pathak. Brand consultant Harish Bijoor says that flash sales, having lost their novelty factor, are now being used but very differently, mostly for branding.

“They (flash sales) only work if there is a pent up demand for products and they have a value proposition that people are eagerly awaiting,” said Snapdeal’s vice president for strategic alliances Karan Khara.

He added that in 2016, products like fitness bands and personal grooming products may launch through flash sales. The trend has started to play out, most prominent being Nestle’s Maggi that used the used what it called ‘unique’ flash sale model, to announce its return to the market last year. It sold 60,000 welcome kits of Maggi within five minutes on its first flash sale, before it became available on retail shelves again.

Noor Patel , Director Category Management, Amazon India, says the ecommerce major is still holding two to three flash sales a week. “Several brands interested in launching disruptive products which are initially available in limited quantities rely on flash sales to sell.” Perhaps the reason why Motorola never took the flash sale route even when it was restarting operations in India a couple of years ago.

“Flash sale is a scarcity model which we don’t do... not everyone can make it work,” said Motorola India head Amit Boni. However, some new entrants continue to swear by the model as they attempt to make a mark in consumer memory, create brand recall besides make a wedge in the market. Chinese new entrant LeEco said recently it had sold a total of over 220,000 smartphones within 30 days over three flash sales.

Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.